Battle looming over medicine information

The current rules on information that pharmaceutical companies can give to patients were drawn up in 2001, but they already seem very dated, since they do not take into account the internet. EU policymakers now believe that they must update the rules to reflect patients’ rising expectations and online savoir faire.

In some parts of the Commission, there are musings about creating a Europe-wide online health portal, through which European citizens would have access to a full encyclopedia of diseases and medicines at the click of a mouse. But this is an idea for the long term; the immediate goal is to update a 2001 directive on information to patients.

Advertising and information

Next week (26 November) the Commission will propose a law allowing pharmaceutical companies to provide more information about prescription medicines on the internet and in newspapers and magazines. Advertising to patients will remain banned, but the rules will be relaxed to allow companies to publish information about their product, its price and facts about the prevention and treatment of conditions. The Commission proposes to oblige member states to monitor information that companies provide and sanction companies in the event of non-compliance.

The Commission believes that better information to patients has huge potential to improve compliance with medicines, which is currently poor. According to some estimates, as much as 50% of prescribed medicines are not used correctly. The Commission is also concerned that current rules leave the single market riddled with distortions. “The distinction between the notions of advertising and information is not interpreted consistently across the community,” states a draft of the proposal. For instance, in Germany and Cyprus drug companies cannot reproduce on their company websites the leaflet found in a medicine packet or summary of product characteristics, but this is allowed in many other member states.

Unbiased information

Some public health campaigners and consumer groups have complained that the proposal puts Europe on a slippery slope to US-style advertising to consumers. Last week (7 November) a coalition of campaigners wrote an open letter to Androulla Vassiliou, the European commissioner for health, calling on her to keep tight restrictions on pharmaceutical companies. “We would like you to acknowledge that it is not possible to make a clear distinction between non-promotional information and advertising…The pharmaceutical industry cannot be considered a reliable source of unbiased information, due to an obvious and unavoidable conflict of interest,” wrote the campaigners. Günter Verheugen, the enterprise commissioner, is in charge of the information to patients’ proposal, but the campaigners hope that Vassiliou will be sympathetic to their cause.

Ilaria Passarani, a health policy officer at BEUC, the European consumers’ organisation, who co-signed the letter, says that the proposal allows “disease-mongering” by drug companies, by allowing them to run campaigns to promote awareness of diseases. “Many times they are not real diseases and they are not intended to inform the public but to increase the sale of medicine.”

Industry groups have stated that they do not want US-style advertising but insist that they must have a role, along with other organisations, in informing patients about treatments and conditions.

The Commission may adjust its final proposal before 26 November, but European Voice understands that it is unlikely to change significantly. In any event, expect an intense battle between public health and pharmaceutical lobbies.